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Black Mask Studios
Black Mask Studios is a comic book and graphic novel publishing company formed by Matt Pizzolo (Godkiller, Occupy Comics, Halo-8), Steve Niles (30 Days of Night), and Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion, Epitaph Records) designed as a new infrastructure to support comic book creators and a new pipeline for transgressive art. Heidi MacDonald reported in The Beat: }} History Formation On March 20, 2012, it was announced that Occupy Comics, the charity comic book inspired by and raising funds for Occupy Wall Street - organized by Pizzolo and featuring a legendary roster of creators including Alan Moore (Watchmen) and David Lloyd (Aces Weekly) (in what would be their first shared project since V For Vendetta), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), Art Spiegelman (Maus), Molly Crabapple (Shell Game), Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night), Mike Allred (Madman), and dozens more - would not be released through an existing comic book publisher, instead a new company called Black Mask Studios would be formed to release the project. According to Comic Book Resources: }} Wired reported that Niles and Gurewitz joined with Pizzolo to found Black Mask: }} On June 12, 2012, Black Mask Studios opened its webstore and officially released Occupy Comics #1 with the announcement that Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Spiegelman, Bill Ayers, Ryan Alexander-Tanner, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Matt Bors had joined the Occupy Comics roster. Spiegelman told Wired: On September 17, 2012, the one-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Comics #2 was released to the project's Kickstarter backers and via the Black Mask Studios website. The cover featured a new and iconic illustration by V For Vendetta artist David Lloyd pitting his seminal character V against the Wall Street Charging Bull. Lloyd told Wired: First slate Nearly a year later, on February 14, 2013, Black Mask Studios unveiled its first slate of comics with a two-pronged distribution strategy of supplying comics to traditional comic book shops as well as direct-to-fan through digital-physical hybrid subscriptions. In addition to reporting on the distribution structure, MTV's Charles Webb reported on the star-studded nature of the launch slate: }} As announced on the Black Mask Studios official website,http://blackmaskstudios.com/bms/black-mask-the-spring-collection/ the leadoff slate of comics includes: * Occupy Comics, in a new configuration for comic book stores but still with all revenue received by organizers and creators (past hard costs) being donated to Occupy-related efforts, * 12 Reasons To Die, a transmedia concept project masterminded by Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah, producer Adrian Younge, and executive producer RZA that spans across an album and comic book series of the same name, the comic to be written by Matthew Rosenberg and Patrick Kindlon with interiors and covers to be illustrated by a rotating team of artists including Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash), Riley Rossmo (Cowboy Ninja Viking, Bedlam), Breno Tamura (Pigs), Gus Storms, Paolo Rivera (Daredevil), Ramon Perez (Jim Henson's Tale of Sand, Wolverine and the X-Men), Ronald Wimberly (Prince of Cats), Garry Brown (The Massive), Christopher Mitten (30 Days of Night), and more, * Ballistic, a psychedelic, transreal, hard sci-fi adventure by Darick Robertson (Happy, The Boys, Transmetropolitan) and Adam Egypt Mortimer (director Grant Morrison's upcoming Sinatoro), * Liberator, a gritty vigilante series about two young heroes avenging the torture of animals by writer and real-life animal rescuer Matt Miner and artist Joel Gomez (with 30% of the project's profits going to animal rescue efforts). Pizzolo told Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter: }} The first slate was scheduled to launch on May Day 2013 with Occupy Comics #1. References External links * Official website * Official Facebook page * Official Twitter Category:Comic book publishing companies of the United States